Chapter Text
“She eats three meals a day,” Rafael says, Cati cradled in his arms, “just like you do. If you’re eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner, then Cati should be as well. Don’t forget that, all right?”
Rolling her eyes, Amanda mutters, “Somehow, I think she’ll remind me. Can I take her now?”
“Oh!” he says, suddenly digging into the tiny backpack with cats all over it, “Just so you know, I put her favorite toys in here. The little strings…her favorite is the orange yarn ball, and her laser…babe, you put her laser in here, right?”
Sonny looks up from where he’s seated on the couch, Jesse snuggling in to his side and Billie on his lap, with Frannie’s head resting on his thigh. “Yes, honey. It’s in the little pocket in the front.”
Rafael quickly locates the laser. “Oh good,” he sighs, then gives a relieved smile. “I was afraid for a second I’d have to go back. But it’s here.”
Amanda nods, feeling her patience fraying at the edges. “Can I take her now, please?”
“Yeah, just a minute…” He reaches back into the backpack, maneuvering something she can’t see, and when his finger reappears, it’s covered with some kind of mushy concoction resembling baby poop. “There you are, my love,” he murmurs, warm and sweet, and Amanda thinks that if Rafael speaks half as sweetly to Sonny as he does to that cat, Sonny’s got it made.
Cati eagerly licks her owner’s finger as the man hums happily. It nearly sounds sexual, and at the thought, Amanda bites her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Never again will she joke about cat ladies, now that she’s known a cat man. “You’re going to miss your flight,” she finally says, in hopes of hurrying him along, but Rafael doesn’t seem worried in the slightest.
It’s only when Sonny, mere seconds later, sets Billie on the couch, then stands and stretches and says, “Sweetheart, we should get going,” that Rafael seems to acknowledge there’s any kind of a timetable. He does one last reach into the cat backpack, retrieving a couple hand wipes, then offers Cati to Amanda. She eagerly takes the sweet little cat as Rafael wipes his hands.
“Now be a good girl for Auntie Amanda,” he coos, “and a kind houseguest to Frannie and the girls, all right?”
They’ve been bringing Cati over to Amanda’s apartment for a few months now. After Frannie had surgery to remove most of the cancer, Rafael insisted that a visit was in order, because the cat would bring happy juju. Amanda thought he was crazy, but she’d let him bring her over anyway, knowing that Frannie had yet to consume any felines.
Rafael had gently lay Cati next to Frannie’s head on the couch as Sonny and Amanda stood nearby, ready to separate the two and stem any potential bloodshed. But Frannie had sniffed at the little cat, who had sniffed her back; then the dog took a giant lick over the cat’s head and down her back…and continued to lick her for a few minutes. Cati then climbed onto Frannie’s back, stretching her legs and pawing at the fur before circling and laying down for a nap.
That was the day that Cati Barba-Carisi became an honorary Rollins, too.
Sonny leans forward, placing a gentle kiss on the kitty’s head. “Bye Kitcat,” he grins, using his favorite nickname for the cat, then hugs his friend. “See you when we get back.”
Ten days in Hawaii, in a honeymoon suite. The two of them, alone together, and blissfully happy. It is exactly the peace and relaxation they need after yesterday–after the small, lovely ceremony they had in his parents’ backyard on Staten Island.
“You ready?” Sonny asks, smiling his “I’m blissfully happy with my beautiful husband” smile, and Rafael returns it immediately.
“Lead the way,” Rafael replies, and a moment later they’ve left, and Amanda is closing her door and letting out a sigh.
“Momma,” Jesse says, looking over from her spot on the couch where she’s now petting Frannie, “when did Unca Sonny and Unca Wafi start acting so weird together?”
“Good question,” Amanda muses, thinking over the last year. Back to her first phone call to Rafael, all those months ago.
She smiles at her daughter. “I’m pretty sure it started when he got this cat.”